Jackie Chan joins top Chinese gov’t body

Thesp joined on panel by helmer Chen Kaige

BEIJING — Jackie Chan has been named as a Hong Kong delegate on the Chinese government’s top advisory body.

The panel, the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, reports to China’s annual rubberstamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, which meets next month.

He will be joined on the advisory body by helmer Chen Kaige, as well as recent Nobel Literature laureate Mo Yan. Other delegates include comedian Zhao Benshan and top TV anchor Bai Yansong. “Kung Fu Hustle” helmer Stephen Chow will join the state advisory body in the southern province of Guangdong.

Chan has been a staunch defender of single-party rule by the Communist Party, and he recently described the U.S. as the world’s “most corrupt” country because of the global financial crisis. In December he said that the Hong Kong government should limit what issues people could protest about, which raised hackles locally.

His latest movie, “CZ12,” which is about a quest to track down Chinese zodiac statues taken by Western raiders during the Opium Wars in the 1840s, was China’s fifth-highest grossing movie last year, taking $130 million in three weeks.